1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 You are listening to City Church Manchester. We are a church that invites 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:09,780 everyone to enjoy Christ for the glory of God. If we can serve you in any way 3 00:00:09,780 --> 00:00:16,400 then visit our website at citychurchmanchester.org to find out more. 4 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:27,280 Our Bible reading is going to be coming from two places, two parts of the Bible today. 5 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:36,160 So Genesis chapter 3 verses 16 to 24, it's the first book in the Bible. 6 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:48,080 Genesis chapter 3 verses 16 to 24 and Exodus chapter 31 verses 12 to 18. 7 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:53,280 Exodus 31 12 to 18. 8 00:00:53,280 --> 00:01:03,280 I'll start with the Genesis chapter 3 16 to 24. 9 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:08,280 To the woman he said, I will make your pains in childbearing very severe. 10 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,280 With painful labor you will give birth to children. 11 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:16,280 Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. 12 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:21,280 To Adam he said, because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree 13 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,280 about which I commanded you, you must not eat. 14 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,280 Cursed is the ground because of you. 15 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:34,280 Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 16 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:41,280 It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. 17 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:48,280 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground. 18 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:53,280 Since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return. 19 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:58,280 Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. 20 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:03,280 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 21 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:08,280 And the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. 22 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:14,280 He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. 23 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:21,280 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:26,280 After he drove the man out he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim 25 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:31,280 and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. 26 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,280 Exodus chapter 31 verses 12 to 18. 27 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:41,280 Then the Lord said to Moses, 28 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,280 Say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths. 29 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:49,280 This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come 30 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,280 so that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy. 31 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,280 Observe the Sabbath because it is holy to you. 32 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,280 Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death. 33 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:03,280 Those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 34 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:08,280 For six days work is to be done but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, 35 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,280 holy to the Lord. 36 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,280 Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 37 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,280 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, 38 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:19,280 celebrating it for generations to come as a lasting covenant. 39 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,280 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever. 40 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,280 In the sixth days the Lord made the heavens and the earth 41 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,280 and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. 42 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,280 When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, 43 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,280 he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, 44 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,280 the tablets of stone inscribed by a finger of God. 45 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:44,280 Thanks very much Chris and good afternoon everyone. 46 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,280 Welcome to City Church and if you are new, 47 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,280 a particularly warm welcome to our series in Exodus 48 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,280 that we've been going through over the last few weeks. 49 00:03:55,280 --> 00:04:00,280 Do keep your Bibles open because we're going to be working through 50 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:05,280 this passage that speaks particularly about the Sabbath. 51 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:08,280 But why don't I pray before we begin. 52 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:14,280 Heavenly Father we do thank you so much that you are a good God who speaks to us. 53 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:16,280 You know the details of our lives, 54 00:04:16,280 --> 00:04:21,280 you know what we've been through this week and you know what lies ahead for us. 55 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:25,280 And so that we do ask that as you speak to us today, 56 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:30,280 we would find comfort where we are broken, 57 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:35,280 we would find challenge where we need to repent and turn back to you. 58 00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:37,280 Amen. 59 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:42,280 Well the global church, you know the church right across the world 60 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:49,280 and throughout history has always been involved in big gun fights 61 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:57,280 when it comes to the question of what does it mean to thrive as a human? 62 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:01,280 What does it mean to thrive as a human? 63 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:05,280 And when it comes to that question, what does it mean to thrive as a human? 64 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:08,280 When it comes to modern day debates within the church, 65 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:12,280 we could talk about the debate over sexuality 66 00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:17,280 or we could talk about the debate over transgenderism. 67 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:25,280 But there is one aspect of the human thriving question 68 00:05:25,280 --> 00:05:31,280 that both sides, both sides of those debates will immediately shut down 69 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:37,280 because the implications are too hot to handle. 70 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:39,280 And it's this. 71 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:45,280 Humans were not created to be restless. 72 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:51,280 The solution, trust in Jesus and take a weekly Sabbath. 73 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:53,280 Let me say that again. 74 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:56,280 Humans were not created to be restless. 75 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:04,280 The solution is to trust in Jesus and take a weekly Sabbath. 76 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:08,280 Now I've got three points for us this afternoon 77 00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:11,280 and I want to get straight into it because we've got a lot to cover 78 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:15,280 and the first point is this, the rest that we were made for, 79 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:18,280 the rest that we were made for. 80 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:24,280 Now in order to understand the solution to restlessness, 81 00:06:24,280 --> 00:06:27,280 we need to kind of retrace our steps 82 00:06:27,280 --> 00:06:33,280 and we need to go back to the moment our rest was lost 83 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:41,280 because there was a time, there was a time way back in the creation 84 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:46,280 when we had the rest that our heart longs for today. 85 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:49,280 And it all links back to Genesis 3. 86 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:53,280 We heard Chris read the very end of that chapter 87 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:58,280 but it all works back to Genesis 3, the third chapter in the Bible. 88 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:04,280 And it's a moment when God, he'd made a permanent time of rest. 89 00:07:04,280 --> 00:07:10,280 He'd made creation and on the seventh day we're told that he rested. 90 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:18,280 And his desire for all of humankind was to have a perfect relationship with him 91 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:23,280 as the creator, to have a perfect relationship with each other, with other humans 92 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,280 and a perfect relationship with the world around them 93 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:30,280 that they were to work and nurture and look after. 94 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:35,280 But the Bible describes how Adam and Eve, they failed to trust in God 95 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,280 and you can read all about this in Genesis chapter 3 96 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:42,280 and as a result, well as a result, 97 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:49,280 they and the rest of humankind following them were expelled from the garden, 98 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:51,280 as Chris read. 99 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:58,280 And ever since that day we have wandered restless across the world ever since. 100 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:05,280 Now restlessness is more than just being physically fatigued. 101 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:14,280 Restlessness that I'm talking about, it speaks of our hearts being permanently unsettled 102 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:19,280 or our minds being continually switched on. 103 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:27,280 And not in a good way but in a way that makes us overwhelmed and exhausted at every level. 104 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:35,280 One definition of anxiety that is a symptom of this restlessness of our hearts 105 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:44,280 is anxiety is an uncomfortable fear triggered by a real or an imagined threat 106 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:51,280 where you don't feel that you have the wisdom, strength or capacity to cope. 107 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:58,280 You see call it biology or call it learned human experience, 108 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:04,280 people who are fearful in their hearts do not sleep. 109 00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:11,280 A modern way of saying that is people who are anxious are always switched on. 110 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:17,280 When Adam and Eve took the fruit that they were forbidden to eat, 111 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:24,280 back in Genesis 3 it resulted in three sources of anxiety 112 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:31,280 that contribute to restlessness that we've struggled with ever since, every single one of us. 113 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:35,280 You can read all about it in Genesis 3.17 which is our first one 114 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:41,280 and this was the first source of restlessness, our relationship with work. 115 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,280 It says this, cursed is the ground because of you, 116 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:50,280 through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 117 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:57,280 This was one of the first consequences of that broken relationship with the world 118 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:01,280 because of their distrust. 119 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:09,280 And what it means is this, whether you are trying to make enough money to stay above the poverty line 120 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:14,280 or whether you are stretching the gifts that you have in an environment 121 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,280 that always wants more that you can sensibly give to it 122 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:22,280 or whether you are unemployed here today 123 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:29,280 and the waiting for a way out of that is eating you alive. 124 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:33,280 All of that comes under the heading of painful toil 125 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:41,280 and it all contributes to our restlessness and it all goes back to Genesis 3. 126 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:47,280 Secondly, the second source of anxiety that came out of the fall 127 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:51,280 is found in verses 7 and 12 of Genesis 3 128 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:55,280 and it's about our relationship with others. 129 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,280 It should have been perfect but when Adam and Eve took the fruit 130 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:03,280 our relationship with those around us also broke. 131 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:07,280 And we read that when sin entered the world 132 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:15,280 blame and shame became two terrible cancers to afflict every single relationship 133 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,280 whether it's with family members or with friends. 134 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:23,280 The word nakedness, which is a word that comes up in Genesis 3 135 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:28,280 as a cost of Adam and Eve turning their back on God 136 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:32,280 describes a lack of contentment not only with our own bodies 137 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:36,280 but with our very identity. 138 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:43,280 It is the vulnerability of always being aware of all the possible ways that you could fail. 139 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:48,280 It is the insatiable comparison of envying others 140 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:54,280 that whispers to us daily, you are not enough. 141 00:11:54,280 --> 00:12:01,280 And all of that contributes to the restlessness that we feel in our hearts every day. 142 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:05,280 Well, the third source of anxiety that contributes to our restlessness 143 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:10,280 that came out of Genesis 3 is found in Genesis 3 verse 23 144 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,280 and it's about our relationship with God. 145 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:15,280 It should have been perfect but it was broken too 146 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:20,280 and it describes banishment from intimacy with our Creator. 147 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:30,280 It describes how the access to a place of perfect rest was denied. 148 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:35,280 The writer C.S. Lewis very helpfully reminds us 149 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:41,280 that the longing that we have to find a place where we can be at total rest 150 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:47,280 of a stillness deep into our soul as Josh was singing 151 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:53,280 is built into us because it actually exists 152 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:57,280 and it is a place that we were actually designed to dwell. 153 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:05,280 And the reason it hurts so much is because we just can't get back through the door 154 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:10,280 to experience that perfect rest that we long for. 155 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:15,280 I was at a carol service many years ago 156 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:18,280 and it was a type of place where the band was there, 157 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:22,280 we had a choir, strung fairy lights, it was beautiful. 158 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:28,280 But there was a guy at the back of the venue who wouldn't come in, 159 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,280 he wouldn't come and sit down with everyone else at this carol service, 160 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:34,280 he just wanted to stand at the back. 161 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:38,280 And it was dark and kind of atmospheric for Christmas 162 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:44,280 and he was all dressed in black, black top, black trousers, black shoes, 163 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:48,280 pressed into the very corner so that he could not be seen, 164 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:53,280 almost as if he was trying to hide, that he just didn't want to be noticed. 165 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:57,280 And I spoke to him and I invited him, come on in, take a seat with everyone else, 166 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:01,280 it's going to be a great evening. He was like, no. 167 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:06,280 He looked me in the eye and he said, I have done a lot of bad things in my life. 168 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:11,280 I have taken a lot of sons from a lot of mothers 169 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:17,280 and God would not want me drawing close. 170 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:20,280 That was a tragedy to hear that. 171 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:25,280 But what you have with that gentleman is a fellow who is convinced 172 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:31,280 that the door to rest, the door to rest from his guilt, 173 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:35,280 the things that he had done wrong, the access to peace that he longed for, 174 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:42,280 well, he believed that door was barred to him 175 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:47,280 and that's why he just had to remain in the darkness alone at the back. 176 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:51,280 You see, the marks of being banished from the garden, 177 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:55,280 the marks of being expelled from this Eden paradise of rest 178 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,280 that we were ultimately built for, 179 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:02,280 the marks of having an intimate relationship with our Creator broken 180 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:07,280 would be things like the feeling of guilt, the experience of fear, 181 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:12,280 knowing frustration or sadness or lack of contentment, 182 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:16,280 gnawing on our life or unstoppable overthinking 183 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:20,280 or limitless comparison with others around us. 184 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:24,280 These are all the marks of having our relationship with God broken 185 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:31,280 and it's like we're obsessed by a fury to somehow get back into the garden, 186 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:36,280 get back through the door to a place of permanent rest that we lost. 187 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:42,280 And yet everything we do, everything we try, 188 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:47,280 it's just like pounding on the door to rest, yet it never opens. 189 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,280 It never opens, it never opens. 190 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:56,280 And it continually contributes to our heart sense that we are restless, 191 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,280 deeply restless. 192 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:10,280 Can you begin to see Sabbath is a resistance against anxiety in a broken world? 193 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,280 That gives us a little bit of a back story, 194 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:17,280 but I need to say that because it makes sense of the passage today 195 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,280 which is from Exodus 31. 196 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:23,280 And that takes us to our second point this afternoon, 197 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,280 the rest we can taste. 198 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:32,280 Now we need to go back to Genesis 3 to understand Exodus 31. 199 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:37,280 And I want you to look firstly at verses 12 to 13. 200 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,280 So many years later, the Lord says to Moses, 201 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:45,280 say this to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbath. 202 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:49,280 This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, 203 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:56,280 so you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy. 204 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:04,280 Now the Sabbath, the Sabbath is a day set apart to be different from any other day of the week 205 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:13,280 because it was a day that the Israelites were told that they must not work. 206 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:19,280 Now as a culture, it's important to say that we kind of have grown up with the weekend, haven't we? 207 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:24,280 We've all kind of been raised with the joy of the kind of Friday feeling. 208 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,280 So when Friday comes along, it's kind of a fist pump to the air, 209 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:34,280 the weekend's on its way, yes it's Friday. 210 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:42,280 But that is because a long time ago our nation was built on many of the principles laid out in the book of Exodus. 211 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:47,280 But for the tribes and the nations of the ancient Near East, like these Israelites, 212 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:56,280 the idea of a day off once a week would have been as unimaginable as a concept 213 00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:59,280 as if they had seen a self-driving Tesla. 214 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:06,280 It would have been absolutely too crazy for them to try and wrap their heads around one day off where you don't work. 215 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:13,280 You see the Sabbath day was designed as a perpetual weekly gift from God. 216 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:17,280 It's a gift with holiness at the centre. 217 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,280 Did you see that when Chris was reading it? 218 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:24,280 Because holy is repeated three times. Three times. 219 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:26,280 This day is to be holy. 220 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:29,280 Now holy is a little bit of a Christian jargon word. 221 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,280 What does it mean? Well, holy, it's a relational word. 222 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:39,280 We're not to be intimidated by the word holy because holy means to be special to someone. 223 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:47,280 It means to be set apart for a particular person's personal delight. 224 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:51,280 Set apart for a particular person's personal delight. 225 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,280 Look at me at verse 13 of Exodus 31. 226 00:18:54,280 --> 00:19:02,280 Because God makes the people holy, that is, he makes the people special for his delight, 227 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:04,280 we're told that therefore they should keep the Sabbath. 228 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:05,280 Do you see that? 229 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:11,280 Look at me at verse 14. Because the day is holy to you, the people, 230 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:18,280 that's what it says in the passage, that is, it is a special day for the Israelites' personal delight. 231 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,280 They are told that they must keep the Sabbath. 232 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,280 Look at me at verse 15 of Exodus 31. 233 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:33,280 Because it is holy to the Lord, that is, it is a special day of delight for God, 234 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:37,280 therefore you must keep the Sabbath. 235 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:45,280 In effect, in effect is God saying to the Israelites, he's saying to them, 236 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:53,280 look, because you are so special to me, I want you to have with me, 237 00:19:53,280 --> 00:20:02,280 I want you to share an experience of me that you guys haven't tasted since Eden. 238 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:10,280 In other words, one day a week, the door of Eden will open just a fraction, just a fraction. 239 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:18,280 And I want you guys, the Israelites, to take one step in. 240 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:22,280 You can't saturate yourself in it, you cannot permanently dwell there, 241 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:26,280 you cannot fully comprehend it, but one day a week, 242 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:36,280 you get to taste something of that Eden rest that you had, but then was lost. 243 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:41,280 And the flavours, the flavours of that day of rest, well you can see, 244 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:46,280 look with me at verse 15, rest from all work. 245 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,280 Look with me at verse 16, it is a celebration of the goodness of God, 246 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,280 it's a celebration, it's going to be a flavour of this day. 247 00:20:53,280 --> 00:21:00,280 And verse 17, refreshment, it's going to be a day of deep, deep refreshment. 248 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:07,280 Now that is pretty amazing, right? That sounds very nice, very nice. 249 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:11,280 But haven't we got a problem with verse 14? 250 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,280 Look with me at verse 14 in your Bibles because it's a little bit of a mood killer. 251 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:19,280 Verse 14 reminds us that if this is a gift, 252 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:23,280 it's like lending someone your state of the art sports car and saying, 253 00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:29,280 look go and enjoy it, this is a wonderful gift, have fun, drive it up and down the roads of Manchester 254 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:33,280 as late at night as you like, wonderful, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. 255 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:39,280 But if you fail to do it, I will kill you. 256 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:42,280 Why so serious? 257 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,280 Well the answer is in verse 13, 258 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:52,280 So you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy. 259 00:21:52,280 --> 00:22:00,280 It means one of the ways that God shapes you or restores you or fits you 260 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:07,280 so that he delights in you and that you can properly delight in him 261 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,280 is by keeping the Sabbath. 262 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,280 Why so serious? 263 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:18,280 Because like a husband who cares nothing about delighting his wife, 264 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:23,280 he does not care a jot what she thinks or whether she's happy or not. 265 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:27,280 Well you would say their marriage is dead. 266 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:34,280 Well a person who cares nothing to delight in God or be delighted in by God, 267 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:39,280 you would also say that their faith is dead. 268 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,280 And they do not belong to the people of God. 269 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,280 Why so serious? 270 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:56,280 Because of this, once a week the Israelites were told to really express their trust in God 271 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:01,280 by not gathering food and not working. 272 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:07,280 You see they were told that one day a week you would be economically, reputationally, 273 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:13,280 professionally disadvantaged in the eyes of the world around you 274 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:19,280 all because you Israelites collectively chose to focus a day on particularly 275 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:28,280 and intentionally enjoying the Lord and trusting that he would provide enough for you and your family. 276 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,280 Therefore think about it like this. 277 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:36,280 If you're worried that this is too serious, think about it like this. 278 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:44,280 Imagine if any Israelites in Exodus told themselves, let's just sideline what God says. 279 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:49,280 Let's just put God's promises and instruction aside. 280 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:54,280 And what if they said to themselves, hey look if we just work a little bit harder, 281 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,280 then we can reach the promised rest on our own. 282 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,280 Or if we can just get through that next promotion, 283 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,280 or if we can just get through this next project that I'm working on, 284 00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:12,280 then we can get to the promised rest that God has offered us. 285 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:20,280 Imagine if that person then persuaded other people in the community to also believe them. 286 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:26,280 Imagine if that person persuaded others around them to also sideline God 287 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,280 and go their own way in finding rest. 288 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:35,280 It would mean that whole community would die and perish in the desert. 289 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,280 Can you see why the Sabbath was so serious? 290 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:44,280 Because to work seven days a week, to work seven days a week, 291 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,280 is to declare to the world that God does not keep his promises. 292 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:55,280 To work seven days a week is to declare that the Israelites are not God's special heart delight. 293 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:59,280 If you work seven days a week and you're an Israelite, 294 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:04,280 you are proclaiming to the world that to survive in the wilderness, 295 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:10,280 you have to go it alone and you can depend on no one but yourself. 296 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:21,280 Do you see how the Sabbath is a resistance against the idolatry of self-dependence in the world? 297 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,280 So we've seen what went wrong in Genesis 3. 298 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,280 We've seen how God in Exodus 31 says, 299 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:32,280 actually I'm just opening a crack in the door back to Eden that you long for, to find that rest. 300 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:38,280 Well, let's go to our third and final point today, which is actually the rest for today. 301 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:43,280 What does it mean for us today? How do we get this rest today? 302 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:49,280 And I guess the question that you're probably thinking this afternoon 303 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:54,280 is, is the Sabbath still a rule for Christians today? 304 00:25:54,280 --> 00:26:00,280 And my answer to that is yes and no. 305 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:05,280 Because as you've heard me say before, as we've gone through our Exodus series, 306 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:10,280 Exodus was written to a really specific group of people about 3,300 years ago. 307 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:17,280 And although the practical application for the Israelites is right here in the desert all laid out, 308 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,280 the principles have a timeless echo. 309 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:25,280 And that's what we have to particularly pay attention to today for us. 310 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:32,280 And we find their fullest meaning, these principles, as we look to Jesus. 311 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:40,280 In Matthew chapter 12 verses 1 through to 8, 312 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,280 you'll find Jesus describing himself as the Lord of the Sabbath, 313 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,280 meaning when Jesus stands up, he says, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. 314 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:52,280 He's standing up and saying, I'm the King of rest. I'm the King of rest. 315 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:58,280 Or in Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says to all who are listening, 316 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:08,280 he says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 317 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:15,280 And what he means in an utterly mind blowing way is that the Eden encounter with God, 318 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:21,280 where you can experience intimacy with God again and true rest and true restoration 319 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:27,280 is no longer limited to one day a week. 320 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:32,280 But because Jesus is the door, because Jesus is the door back to Eden, 321 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:38,280 wherever Jesus is, you can enter true rest. 322 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:42,280 And the key to the door is by faith in Jesus. 323 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:47,280 Therefore, if you want true rest, go to Jesus. 324 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:55,280 Now, of course, what we experience in Jesus today is a taste of the rest 325 00:27:55,280 --> 00:28:00,280 we will experience in full in the new creation when we see him in person. 326 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:05,280 Today, we get a taste of it. We get a glimpse. 327 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,280 But one of the things that we get to taste today, which I think is really exciting, 328 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:14,280 is that the sharp edges of those three pieces of anxiety from Genesis 3, 329 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:18,280 they all get blunted. They don't get eradicated in our lives, 330 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:22,280 but they get blunted by resting in Jesus. 331 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:26,280 Let me give you an example of how that works. 332 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:33,280 For those of us who trust in Jesus, we know that we have peace with God, 333 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,280 even when we don't feel it. 334 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:43,280 For those of us who trust in Jesus, we know that work successes or failures, 335 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,280 when we're out there in the world or whether we're at home, 336 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:51,280 they no longer define us, even when we feel hard, 337 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,280 even when we feel like it's impossible. 338 00:28:54,280 --> 00:29:03,280 As a Christian, we know that the experience of shame is not how God sees us, 339 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,280 even if that's what we feel when we look in the mirror. 340 00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:12,280 That is the amazing privilege of the rest that we can experience today 341 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,280 if we put our trust in Jesus. 342 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:20,280 That has got to give us a little bit of our men in our hearts, right? 343 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:22,280 But some of you may well be saying, 344 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:26,280 hooray for Jesus, because of Jesus I get to work seven days a week 345 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,280 and no one can tell me not to. 346 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:35,280 But remember I said the principle still echoes today. 347 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:40,280 Imagine husbands out there, imagine you say to your wife, 348 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,280 look, because of the permanence of our marriage certificate, 349 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:47,280 I'm not going to celebrate our anniversary this year. 350 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:53,280 Now for those of you who are at any doubt, that will not go well for you if you try that. 351 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:59,280 Just like that, the Sabbath is still a marker of relational health between you and God. 352 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:05,280 And to ignore the Sabbath is absolutely a warning light on the dashboard of your heart 353 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:12,280 that something is not well between you and the Lord. 354 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:20,280 You see, your refusal, your refusal to send emails on your day off, 355 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:27,280 your refusal just to finish that project on your day so decide to enjoy the Lord, 356 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:31,280 or your refusal to revise on the Sabbath, 357 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:37,280 or your refusal to treat the Sabbath day like any other day of the week, 358 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:41,280 whether you work or not, 359 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:47,280 well that is a line in the sand to say that I trust the Lord. 360 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:52,280 It is a firework to every network and friendship that you belong to 361 00:30:52,280 --> 00:31:00,280 that states loud and clearly, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 362 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:07,280 Do you see the nuance of Sabbath as it applies to us today? 363 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:11,280 Let me run it quickly. Should we keep one day of the week to rest 364 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,280 and particularly intentionally enjoy the Lord? Yes. 365 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,280 Does it have to be a Sunday? No. 366 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:23,280 Does the pattern God laid out for humans since the very beginning of creation 367 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:30,280 mean that we should protect this day and make it special to us as a day that stands out in the week? Yes. 368 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,280 And yet after everything that I've been sharing with you this afternoon, 369 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:40,280 will you take a Sabbath day? Probably not. 370 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:45,280 Why? Well, let me speak to you personally about this. 371 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:50,280 I struggle with the Sabbath. I really struggle with the Sabbath 372 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:57,280 because I struggle to trust that God has my best interests at heart 373 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,280 when it comes to work and not doing it. 374 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:06,280 And so I struggle not to check my email. I struggle not to finish a talk that I'm writing 375 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:14,280 or at least thinking about it. I struggle not just to kind of do this last little bit and that. 376 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:19,280 And the thing is, I know the research. I know the practical research that says that 377 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,280 actually working anything over 40 hours a week is largely redundant 378 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:25,280 because the quality of your decision making is terrible. 379 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:31,280 And it leads to feelings of being overwhelmed, insomnia and other health issues. 380 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,280 I know all of that. 381 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:43,280 Yet my default, my default personally, is to ignore or downgrade the Sabbath 382 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:48,280 because like some form of idolatrous Stockholm syndrome, 383 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:53,280 I'm actually quite comfortable with being a slave. 384 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:56,280 I'm quite comfortable with being a slave to my job. 385 00:32:56,280 --> 00:33:03,280 I'm quite comfortable with the idea, the idea that I've lived with all of my life 386 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:11,280 as being part of an immigrant community that ingrained into me a narrative 387 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:18,280 that said you are never enough. You must never give them an excuse to sideline you. 388 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:24,280 You must always run faster and faster and faster. 389 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,280 I am comfortable being a slave to that. 390 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:33,280 Which means when Jesus says to me and he says, look Matt, come to me. 391 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,280 You who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. 392 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:45,280 I want to look to Jesus and say, I'll take your forgiveness. 393 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:50,280 But please don't ask me to stop. Please don't ask me to slow down. 394 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:53,280 Because I can't bear the consequences of that. 395 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,280 And I grip my chains even tighter. 396 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:02,280 But what changes me, and I've had to do the hard work as I've been preparing this 397 00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,280 just to not be a total hypocrite before you. 398 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:11,280 What leads me to unclasp my shackles, to put the laptop away, 399 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:16,280 to delete the email app on my phone, and to go through the door of rest 400 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:22,280 that Jesus opens wide for me, not as a slave but as a son. 401 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:28,280 Well, it changes actually when I remember what it cost him to open that door to me 402 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,280 in the first place. 403 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:34,280 Look back at Exodus chapter 31. 404 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,280 We're told that the restless one, the one who refuses to rest 405 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,280 in the Israelite community is put out of the camp, cut off from the people, 406 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,280 they are killed. 407 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:52,280 And if I had been there 3,300 years ago in that Israelite community, 408 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,280 that would have been me. 409 00:34:55,280 --> 00:35:02,280 Based on my unrestrained work habits, that would have been me. 410 00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:08,280 You see, I am the one who declares that God will not keep his promises or provide for me 411 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,280 by the way that my work habits are. 412 00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:16,280 I'm the one who is role modelling to the rest of the community around me 413 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:21,280 that in order to survive in this world you have to endlessly graft or hustle 414 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:23,280 and always depend on yourself. 415 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:27,280 That's me. 416 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:33,280 And yet Jesus, Jesus the one who actually invented rest, 417 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:39,280 took my place and experienced the three sources of restless anxiety 418 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:43,280 that we saw in Genesis 3 in full in my place. 419 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:49,280 The restlessness on the cross, the restlessness of shame as he was stripped naked on the cross 420 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,280 as he took my place. 421 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:57,280 The restlessness of the cursed creation as the thorns and briars 422 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:02,280 that are a mark of an unhealthy, relentless attitude towards work 423 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:09,280 are twisted as to be a thorn crown and placed upon his head. 424 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,280 He took that in my place. 425 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:17,280 The restlessness of being cut off from God the Father 426 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:23,280 as heaven shut the door to him and expelled him from the Eden joy of intimacy with God. 427 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:27,280 He took that in my place. 428 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:36,280 And as a result, as a result, I do take a weekly Sabbath. 429 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:38,280 For me it's on Saturdays. 430 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:46,280 And I do plan to do things on that day intentionally that reminds me of the goodness of God. 431 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,280 And I get excited. 432 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:56,280 I get excited about tasting the new creation in advance of being there in person. 433 00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:06,280 And it hasn't magically fixed me or my family, though we are healthier for it. 434 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:10,280 But the Sabbath does make all the difference. 435 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:17,280 You see, to a world, to a world that says to us every single day, 436 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:29,280 your work is your master, Sabbath is resistance. 437 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,280 So will you join the fight? 438 00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:34,280 Let's pray. 439 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:38,280 Heavenly Father, we do thank you so much 440 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:42,280 that though we lost the rest through our own sins, 441 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:47,280 through our own selfishness, through our own rebellion against you, 442 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:53,280 a rebellion that echoes from Adam and Eve in our own hearts through to today, 443 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,280 we thank you that Jesus offers us a way back to true rest, 444 00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:00,280 a rest that we can sample now, 445 00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:07,280 a rest that we know we will experience in full, full wonder and glory in the new creation. 446 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:11,280 Father, we're aware of the cost of what it means to trust in you 447 00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:16,280 and to declare the world that you are a good God and a good promise keeper. 448 00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:22,280 We know the cost of saying, I will not depend upon myself. 449 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:27,280 We see the invitation to delight in you and so quickly turn our backs to you. 450 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,280 And we are sorry for that. 451 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:35,280 As we hear this exhortation from Exodus 31, 452 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:40,280 may you lift our hearts with courage again 453 00:38:40,280 --> 00:39:08,280 to enjoy the gift of the Sabbath day every week. Amen.